Mayor Zohran Mamdani once built his campaign around providing relief to bodegas and delis in New York City. However, his actions may now be leading to courthouse drama.
New York City’s local shops, corner stores, and delis, often considered the heart of their communities, are now challenging Mamdani’s city-endorsed grocery store initiative. They argue that this plan poses a significant threat to the survival of these small businesses.
Taking legal action, the Multicultural Business Coalition, representing a multitude of ethnic and multicultural chambers, filed a lawsuit this Monday in New York County Supreme Court. Their membership roster includes many immigrant-owned bodegas, supermarkets, and grocery stores.
The coalition is urging a judge to completely dismantle Mamdani’s proposed grocery store initiative. They claim the plan stands in violation of New York’s civil rights statutes and breaches the equal protection clause of the state Constitution.
Their contention is that the city’s strategy would unfairly position these new grocery stores as dominant competitors. With advantages such as access to publicly managed real estate, construction funding, and substantial governmental backing, these stores would have an edge that neighborhood bodegas simply cannot compete with.
The proposed stores would sell produce, meat, dairy and pantry staples at roughly 30 percent below typical market prices, according to Mamdani.
For struggling families, that could mean significant savings.
But for small grocery stores operating on thin margins, MBC says the program could draw away customers and threaten businesses.
On Monday the Multicultural Business Coalition sued in New York County Supreme Court, asking a judge to block Mamdani’s grocery-store plan, arguing it violates state civil rights laws and equal protection
While campaigning, Mamdani filmed a skit inside a New York deli, promising to cut fines and fees, reduce red tape and speed up permitting for small businesses. He said his favorite thing about NYC was its delis and bodegas
New York City has roughly 14,000 grocery stores and bodegas, according to city food-system data, and about 84 percent have fewer than 10 employees
MBC President Kenneth Roldan has urged City Hall to negotiate rather than fight the coalition in court.
‘Although we have not heard from you since May 2026, we are open to resolving this matter amicably with more sensible solutions to feed working class people with nutritious essential food items at affordable prices,’ Roldan said in a letter to City Hall, according to the New York Post.
Mark Jaffe, the coalition’s legal counsel and president of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, also said the group wants a compromise.
‘We are asking the mayor to avoid litigation to sit down with us,’ Jaffe told the Post. ‘But we have to try to stop this if they won’t listen to us.’
The city plans to open one store in each borough. It would provide the sites and substantial financial support, while private grocery operators would run the stores.
Ironically enough, while campaigning, Mamdani filmed one of his trademark highly produced skits inside a New York deli, promising to make life easier for the city’s small-business owners by cutting fines and fees, slashing red tape and speeding up the permitting process.
‘There’s a lot of things that make New York City special. For me, it’s the delis and bodegas,’ Mamdani said in the video.
The program is expected to cost about $70 million, although spending will vary by location. The East Harlem store at La Marqueta alone has been estimated at roughly $30 million.
The city says the stores could save a typical shopper about $90 a month, or more than $1,000 a year, through discounts on a core basket of groceries.
The first location, in Hunts Point in the Bronx, is expected to open by the end of 2027. The La Marqueta store is now projected for 2029, with all five locations expected to be operating by the end of that year.
New York City has roughly 14,000 grocery stores and bodegas, according to city food-system data, and about 84 percent have fewer than 10 employees. Many are immigrant-owned businesses operating on narrow margins.
MBC argues that a government-supported supermarket selling many of the same basic products for 30 percent less could pull customers away from those stores.
‘One of the core pledges of Mr. Mamdani’s affordability agenda was the opening of five municipal grocery stores,’ according to the lawsuit.
In doing so, Mr. Mamdani pledged to open municipal grocery stores that sell food items well below the market rate. The grocery stores do not appear to meaningfully regulate the so-called affordable items on a need base method. Therefore, the municipal grocery stores, five in total, openly compete with grocery stores at large, including members of the MBC, who are members of groups historically discriminated against, and who run grocery stores barely making profits, in some instances not operating in the red. Therefore, many minority members of the MBC cannot compete with the municipal grocery stores, and therefore, will be put out of business.’
Mamdani has rejected the idea that the program is intended to replace bodegas.
The city-backed supermarkets will not sell several major bodega revenue generators, including alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets or hot food.
City officials say they are targeting areas with the greatest need.
In Hunts Point, the city says 77 percent of households in surrounding neighborhoods struggle to afford basic necessities. In East Harlem, nearly 40 percent of households received SNAP or other public assistance during the previous year.
The plan has also drawn criticism over how the city could control access to the discounts.
A New York City Economic Development Corporation official recently said the city was considering a ‘library card-esque’ membership system to identify shoppers and manage purchases, ensuring discounts benefit everyday residents rather than bulk buyers.
Mamdani’s proposal also comes with a string of cautionary examples from cities and towns that have tried to keep grocery stores alive with public backing.
In Kanas City, Missouri, Sun Fresh Market, a government-backed grocery experiment, opened in 2018 to improve fresh-food access on the city’s East Side, closed in August 2025 after years of financial struggles.
Its nonprofit operators cited crime, rising costs, and declining customer traffic as challenges.
In Baldwin, Florida, the town stepped in and opened its own grocery store in 2019 after the last private supermarket closed its doors. But what began as a lifeline for residents soon became a financial burden for the town.
The store initially benefited from a surge in demand during the pandemic, but struggled to break even once that faded. It reportedly lost nearly $200,000 a year before finally closing in March 2024, with its limited buying power leaving it unable to compete with larger supermarket chains.
And in Erie, Kansas, officials took a similar gamble in 2020, buying the town’s only grocery store to keep it from disappearing. But the city-run operation struggled to generate enough sales to cover its costs.
Four years later, officials changed course, handing day-to-day operations to a private company while the city retained ownership of the building.
San Francisco has also flirted with the idea of government-backed grocery stores.
Supervisor Bilal Mahmood proposed a city-run fund to help transform corner shops into affordable grocery markets, taking inspiration from New York’s push for municipal grocery stores. But the plan faced opposition and was subsequently scaled back.
In Boston, the idea has moved further.
The City Council has formally begun exploring the feasibility of publicly owned grocery stores, with supporters arguing that they could help tackle soaring food prices and food insecurity, while also providing a safeguard against potential disruptions to SNAP benefits.
And in Chicago, officials have already studied the concept.
A 2024 feasibility study concluded that a city-owned supermarket was ‘necessary, feasible, and implementable’. But the city has since shifted course, exploring a public market model rather than directly operating its own grocery store.
The Daily Mail reached out to Mamdani for comment.